All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

Welcome to Orson, Indiana.

Opening Statement

"It's your turn and you know it."

Facts of the Case

Frankie Heck (Patricia Heaton, Everybody Loves Raymond)
is an ordinary woman…or maybe an extraordinary woman, depending upon your
perspective. She spends her days attempting to sell cars at a small-town
dealership in Indiana. She's married to a nice guy named Mike (Neil Flynn, Scrubs), who works at a local quarry. Frankie
and Mike have three kids: a perpetually bored teenager named Axl (Charlie
McDermott, Hot Tub Time
Machine), a clumsy pre-teen named Sue (Eden Sher, Weeds) and a very
strange young child named Brick (Atticus Shaffer, Hancock). The Middle follows the
lives of Frankie and her family members as they attempt to navigate the stresses
and complications of the world.

Disc Three • The Break-Up • The Fun
House • The Final Four • TV or Not TV
• Worry Duty • Mother's Day
• Signals • Average Rules

The Evidence

For the 2009-2010 television season, ABC decided to wipe their entire
Wednesday night slate clean and repopulate it with new shows. With the
well-regarded but ratings-challenged shows Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone, and Dirty Sexy Money booted out the back door
after two short seasons each, ABC reloaded the Wednesday night lineup with a
series of comedies. Their biggest success was Modern Family, which proved
to be a huge hit with both critics and audiences. The flops were the Kelsey
Grammer vehicle Hank and the lighthearted adaptation of John Updike's
The Witches of Eastwick. Somewhere in-between was the surprisingly
tolerable Cougar Town and the aptly-named
The Middle.

The title refers to the fact that the Heck family is located in the middle
of nowhere (a rural town in Indiana apparently qualifies), the fact that they
are an ordinary middle class family, and (unintentionally) the fact that the
show is, uh, middling. I wanted to like The Middle, I really did. Alas,
the show's manic tone, weak recurring gags, and somewhat thin characterization
prevented me from being able to focus on the virtues of this occasionally smart
and insightful sitcom.

While there are a few small supporting characters of note, pretty much every
episode revolves around the five family members. Considering that, it's
particularly disappointing that four of these characters are so one-note. Mike
is the nice guy willing to tell the truth in any situation (even when the truth
is the last thing anyone needs to hear). Sue fumbles all over the place, fails
at every tryout and comes up with a never-ending series of misguided ideas.
Brick is a little oddball who behaves in a variety of peculiar ways (he has a
habit of repeating phrases he has just said in a whisper, like some sort of
mantra: "I want to play Super Mario…Super Mario." Axl
lounges around the house in his boxers and rolls his eyes. There are elements of
reality lurking within all of these characters, but the show seems too intent on
treating these people like cartoons to let that happen.

For that matter, the entire show seems too intent on making things
cartoonish. The tone is pitched somewhere between Glee and something from
the Disney Channel, which isn't a bad thing in and of itself but which seems
inappropriate for a show about the small realities of life in the middle of
Indiana. There really is a terrific, timely sitcom hiding within The
Middle, but its wacky, candy-coated exterior does it absolutely no favors.
This is a program that demands quiet observation, not screeching frenzy. Joey
Newman's wretchedly chaotic original score does the series absolutely no favors;
overplaying every single bit of comedy and doing its best to kill laughs on a
regular basis.

The DVD transfer is somewhat underwhelming, which isn't a huge surprise
given that they've stuffed over 3 hours of content onto each disc. The image is
bright and cheerful (sometimes gratingly so), but it doesn't quite pop the way
it ought to most of the time. The level of detail is also slightly
underwhelming, though flesh tones are accurate and blacks are reasonably deep.
The audio tends to be overdone more often than not (jeez, that music).
Supplements are kinda thin: a featurette called "Raising a Sitcom
Family," another called "Sue's Best Shots," some deleted scenes
and a gag reel.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

When The Middle works, it's almost always due to the valiant
performance of Patricia Heaton. Her turn as the overworked, overstressed,
underpaid and underappreciated mother is a frantic thing of beauty; a believable
and precisely-timed piece of work that often pulls the show from the realm of
silliness into the real world. It's in her character that The Middle
captures its potential: a portrait of the strain the current state of the world
is putting on ordinary working-class parents. Considering that far too many
television characters seem to live laughably comfortable lives free of
significant financial worries, it's a nice change of pace to see someone who
genuinely does have to be concerned about getting the electric bill paid and
feeding the kids. If only the show played as quiet counterpoint to Heaton rather
than attempting to match the impressive frenzy she inevitably reaches in many
episodes, The Middle might have been a minor masterpiece.

Closing Statement

There's potential for The Middle to get better, but this first season
is somewhat frustrating.